The Outcomes Assessment Process Applied to International

Students: An Important Yet Undeveloped Tool

Fred Hildebrand, SUNY Morrisville

and Peter Thomas, System Administration

Stakeholders

• Parents

• Students

• Administrators

• Faculty

Natural Sciences

• Mathematics

• Sciences

Social Sciences

• Sociology

• Psychology

History

• American History

• Western Civilization

• Other World Civilization

Humanities

• The Arts

• Humanities

Languages

• Foreign Language

• Basic Communication

Competencies

• Information Management

• Critical Thinking

Purpose of Assessment

• Accountability

• Improvement

The fact that international students differ from native students leads to the conclusion that outcomes assessments need to be more discretely focused.

We seek to answer two questions:

1) What has SUNY done for the student? Adapt Open Doors questions:

• Student satisfaction with sojourn• Gains in language proficiency• Academic achievement gains• Gains in personal development• Gains in intercultural proficiency• Career-oriented outcomes

2) What has the student done for SUNY? Institutional impact such as

• Curricular reform• Marketing of the institution• Financial effects• Impact on enrollment and retention• Effects on faculty

But … how to get that information from a population of widely varying backgrounds?

Many mechanisms exist in the international education sphere, but none is exactly on point.

Various Techniques and Instruments

• Bolen – Transnational competencies, plus – Need demographic data baseline – separate experience and background– Add standard demographic measures to filter – Age, Ethnicity, Race,

Religion, Semester level, Socioeconomic status, Home city/country

• Corbitt – Global Awareness Profile (GAP Test)

• Meyers and Kelly – Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI)

• Bennett – Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI)

• Middle States – Broad range of examples

To build an appropriate assessment process, we need to:

– Better understand/describe the incoming international student, then

– Create a more appropriate assessment mechanism to gauge outcomes

Our selection process for international students is not too different from the generic,

and the integration of international students into our mainstream has meant little discrete baseline information

Look to the examples of entities around the world that have addressed the issue of internationalization and analogize

Multiple benefits:

– Better assessment processes– Well-tuned links with overseas partners

• Study Abroad/Exchange• Transfer and Articulation• Middle States overseas initiatives

There are a good number of approaches to explore …

Canada CICIC

UK Council of Validating Universities

US IESMAPWESMiddle States

EU Socrates/ErasmusLisbon Credential RecognitionECTS Tuning ProgramTEEP

Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials (CICIC)

• General Guiding Principles for Good Practice in the Assessment of Foreign Credentials

• Broadly framed .. Education/jobs/professional practice

• Looks into the status of an institution and underlying program as well as the credential

Council of Validating Universities

A very comprehensive system in the UK that ensures quality and predictability in the operation of student exchange programs

Institute for the International Education of Students (IES)

• IES/MAP – Model Assessment Practice – Developed as a mode of assessing Study Abroad students

• International and cross-cultural program components

• Three challenges: – Mission/goals per cross cultural learning experience– Non-academic elements– Differing academic cultures

• Set of standards for assessment

World Education Services (WES)

A very active provider of a range of support services in the admissions and transfer fields

Middle States

Increasingly active in the inclusion of overseas universities in the accreditation process, thus building linkages with assessment of learning outcomes

Socrates/Erasmus

• Longstanding program supporting/facilitating student and teacher mobility

• Full academic recognition agreed before departure

• Joint curricula– Joint development of “study programs”– Joint development of “European modules”– Implementation and dissemination of

curricular development projects

• Linkage with ECTS (especially Learning Agreement)

• Thematic Networks – Define and develop a European dimension within a given academic discipline or study area (departments, schools, associations, professional bodies, other partners and student organizations

Lisbon Credential Recognition System

• Per Lisbon Convention, parties can create a standardized supplement to a diploma

• Easily understandable and correctable data about the person and his/her attainments

• Useful for benchmarking

ECTS

• Pre-agreed equivalence

• Credits based on notional year

• Learning Agreement

• Nuance-rich vis-à-vis accommodating disparate students

Tuning Program

• European program to “tune” education systems

• Seven subject areas: Business, Educational Sciences, Geology, History, Math, Physics, Chemistry; 101 university departments in 16 countries

• Research on generic and subject-specific skills and competencies

• Generic competences comprise: Instrumental, Interpersonal, Systemic

• Specific: Skills, Knowledge, Content

Tuning

Instrumental competences• Capacity for analysis and synthesis• Capacity for organization and planning• Basic general knowledge• Grounding in basic knowledge of the profession• Oral and written communication in your native

language• Information management skills (ability to retrieve

and analyse information from different sources)• Knowledge of a second language• Elementary computing skills• Problem solving• Decision-making

Interpersonal competences

• Critical and self-critical abilities

• Teamwork

• Interpersonal skills

• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary team

• Ability to communicate with experts in other fields

• Appreciation of diversity and multicultural aspects

• Ability to work in an international context

• Ethical commitment

Tuning

Systemic competences

• Research skills

• Capacity to learn

• Capacity for applying knowledge in practice

• Capacity to adapt to new situations

• Capacity for generating new ideas (creativity)

• Leadership

• Ability to work autonomously

• Project design and management

• Initiative and entrepreneurial spirit

• Concern for quality

• Understanding of cultures and customs of other countries

• Will to succeed

Tuning

• Looks at educational structures and content of studies, not educational systems

• Methodology is designed to understand curricula and make them comparable (via Learning Outcomes and competences) – described in terms of reference points to be met

• The Learning Agreement is the baseline for assessment

• Level qualifications have been developed, giving rise to, e.g., the EuroBachelor in Chemistry

Tuning

Assessment includes:

– Written exams (predominant mode); Oral exams; Lab reports; Problem-solving exercises; Oral presentations; Bachelor’s Thesis

Plus– Literature survey and evaluation’– Collaborative work– “Posters”

Tuning

• Basic Question: Can a single set of criteria and elements of an assessment system suffice in a multicultural, multinational context, absent special actions, driven by the heterogeneity of the students

• Phase 4 is now getting underway. Including the Assessment elements of the Tuning Program, it will be a key mechanism for answering the question

Tuning

TEEP Project

• Transnational European Evaluation Project (TEEP)

• Flows from the Bologna-based European Higher Education Area process; built on the Tuning program

• Promoter of Quality Assurance with a view to develop comparable criteria and methodologies

• Draws support from the Socrates/Erasmus thematic networks in History, Physics, and Veterinary Science

• Seeks to develop a European methodology for the use of common criteria and Quality Assurance at the European level

• Develops a transnational external evaluation scheme of program review building on a focus on competences and learning outcomes

• Incorporates a self-evaluation process as a starter – plus a site visit

TEEP

NEXT STEP ….

Increased dialogue and sharing of data/information on international students and the assessment of their performance

CICIC http://www.cicic.ca/indexe.stm

CVU http://www.cvu.ac.uk

IESMAP http://www.iesabroad.org

WES http://www.wes.org/

Middle States http://www.msache.org/

Socrates/Erasmus http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/socrates/socrates_en.html

Lisbon Recognition Convention http://www.cepes.ro/information_services/sources/on_line/lisbon.htm

ECTS http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/socrates/ects_en.html

Tuning Program http://www.relint.deusto.es/TUNINGProject/index.htm

TEEP http://www.enqa.net/pubs.lasso